Significant appointment

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

10/21/09, 9:05 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 8:59 PM CET

Appointment maintains French influence.

The appointment of Christine Roger, France’s ambassador to the EU’s political and security committee, as director for media and communication in the secretariat of the Council of Ministers is significant on two counts. First, it says that Pierre de Boissieu, the deputy secretary-general of the Council, is not about to surrender French influence over the secretariat.

Indeed, there are rumours that de Boissieu may stay on beyond the mandate of his nominal boss, Javier Solana, the titular secretary-general, to oversee the transition to a more complicated institutional set-up under the Lisbon treaty, including a permanent president of the European Council and a new high representative for foreign and security policy who is also a vice-president of the Commission.

Second, this is the job that Cristina Gallach, Solana’s spokesperson, aspired to, but didn’t get. Gallach will become a permanent member of the secretariat after Solana’s departure, but not at the level of director.